#feralforest

Balance is a tough word to use correctly. We each need to choose and decide what is balance. When I first got to Ketchikan I was what I call Bush Lean. We had been in the bush for a year, through -60 winter, eat only wild protein, and worked everyday at living.

In the winter you can burn 4-5000 calories a day. Just to keep warm and work out in sub-arctic temps. This means you will lose weight, also muscle mass if you are not careful. It also means you have to eat right, because there is NO Walmart Superstore anywhere close.

Moose Tenderloin brazed and cooked on a wood stove in cast iron.

Large amounts of fat, bear, bacon (the one protein item we brought in for the winter), and Butter, the fat we brought in. We used the bacon fat and butter for cooking with, we did supplement out winter with a limited amount of canned veggies. No refrigeration leads to canning most if not all fresh foods.

Your body changes to its environment, the cold, heat, rain, snow, and the food we give it. It actually doesn’t take long for our bodies to not crave sugars. It IS an addiction to sugars that lead us to cravings. If you can make it 2 weeks without sugars you will be in a good place to move forward healthy.

Sugar (carbs) are everywhere. Do you drink coffee? or do you drink a sweet creamy, coffee flavored beverage? Coffee is fine, water and coffee beans. It’s what we add to it that is hurting us. I found so much joy in sweet anything, it gave me the warm fuzzies it felt like I was being loved.

In SE Alaska there are wild foods too, seafood being the most of it. Fish, crab, shellfish, shrimp, the list is awesome. Unfortunately we also have Safeway and other dealers of garbage food. Not saying you cant get good food there just walk through and do your own math. Calorie intake is very important to my return to health. My meal yesterday, since I eat one meal a day after fasting 22 hours, was dungeness crab I caught myself.

So this entire plate of crab came out to 218 calories……..The butter I had with it was 513 calories. So my one meal was a total 731 calories. Heavy on protein and fats and so very good. I probably burned a few hundred calories cracking shells.

I have become extremely busy with my business and can’t find time or company to sit down and eat meals with so I do the best I can at taking care of myself. Good food = Happy Life for me. My plan is to get back out to the bush and back to that healthy life.

It would be and has been difficult keeping to a plan when I have a partner in my life, I enjoy cooking for someone and I tend to eat more when others are there eating too. This is no reason to get out of a relationship…….I just make sure I am aware of when I am eating because I am hungry or because everyone else is.

Relationships are a healthy part of our lives, loving partners, the feeling of being wanted, the physical benefits of partnership. It is all part of the picture. As I become healthy my self confidence rises, I attract others that are healthy for me in my life and I leave behind anything that is not healthy. This includes habits, foods, jobs, and people. Believe it or not you can get a good picture of your life by looking at 5 of your closest people you hang with.

I like the 5 closest people in my life and I look forward to adding to that list…..

Love and Light to all,

Jon

My partner and I had just arrived in from the bush of Alaska where we had been living for a year. We moved out there, built a cabin from scratch, hunted, fished, and gathered for our food and traveled 120 miles on a river just to check out mail. I could not lift my arms above my shoulders at all without excruciating pain and my knees were so bad I couldn’t get up into the boat without steps being built, It was very sad.

The injury occurred back in 2014 while living in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan out in the woods, off grid. We were raising a wind turbine tower and the pole I was using sheared off in the sub zero temps and the tower fell back to earth. I caught it just in time to get my head into the frame without crushing my skull but I was pile drove into the ground in a squatted position and my arms were pinned to my shoulders. I was freed by my partner and seemed to be alright except for some wounded pride.

It was about 4 months later I began to have torn cuff symptoms and knee issues. We had made the decision to move to the bush of Alaska and I didn’t get help for the injuries. At that point I was already splinting my joints and short stroking muscles to try to keep from hurting. I was at 330 pounds.

May 2016-May 2017 We spent in the bush building and living 300 miles from a road system, we were RURAL, very RURAL. Through all the work my symptoms became worse. There were days I could barely walk, I was using walking sticks or just cutting my movements to the bare minimum.

Through that year my weight fluctuated with the massive amounts of work and the lack of crap food. Which was a good thing. We also had lean times as we got closer to the river ice breaking up so I lost a bit of weight then. When we came to town I was around 325 pounds.

Of course we got into a our boat just a few parking lots away from Safeway where all the food we didn’t have for a year was stored. We kinda went nuts and I gained right up to 345#.